Vakharia PP, et al. - This study entails characterization of the patient burden of skin pain in atopic dermatitis (AD). Findings reported that AD patients commonly experienced skin pain, which definitely imposed a burden on them. These data recommended assessing skin pain severity with itch severity in AD patients and it may be a crucial endpoint for monitoring treatment response.

Methods

• A prospective dermatology practice–based study was carried out using questionnaires and assessment by a dermatologist.

Results

• This study included a total of 305 patients (age range, 13–97 years), with 564 encounters.
• A total of 195 females (63.9%) and 193 whites (63.7%) were included in the cohort.
• Data reported that 42.3 (18.1) years was the mean (SD) age at enrollment, and 29.6 (31.9) years was the mean (SD) age of patient-reported AD onset.
• At baseline, skin pain in the past week was reported by 144 patients (42.7%), with 42 (13.8%) reporting severe or very severe pain.
• Results demonstrated that 24 (16.8%) thought the skin pain was part of their itch, 16 (11.2%) from scratching, and 77 (72.0%) from both.
• Terms that resembled neuropathic pain were more likely to be used by patients with skin pain to describe their itch.
• Researchers found that in patients with vs without excoriations, prevalence of skin pain was increased (72.6% vs 57.6%; Χ² test P=.02) but not other morphologic characteristics.
• They also noted that skin pain severity was most strongly correlated with the Patient-Oriented Eczema Measure (Spearman ρ = 0.54), followed by ItchyQOL (ρ = 0.52), 5-dimensions of itch scale (ρ = 0.47), Dermatology Life Quality Index (ρ = 0.45), numeric rating scale for itch (ρ = 0.43) and sleep (ρ = 0.36), Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (ρ = 0.36), patient-reported global AD severity (ρ = 0.34), Eczema Area and Severity Index (ρ = 0.23), and objective Scoring AD index (ρ = 0.20) (P < .001 for all).
• In addition, findings revealed that patients with both severe itch and pain as compared with those with only one or neither symptom being severe had significant increases in all these measures.